Guilty As Sin

important. So Lieutenant Pascarella was directed to speak with Investigator Bucknell and have him sanitize his reports in such a way as to keep the eighth floor destination out of them. At the same time, he was instructed to do so without adversely prejudicing the rights of the target of the investigation, Alonzo Barnett, in any way.

PULASKI: And did Bucknell do that?

EGAN: He did.

PULASKI: And that accounts for the fact that he told us in court that Mr. Barnett rode to the twelfth floor instead of the eighth floor?

EGAN: That’s correct.

Years later, Jaywalker would read in astonishment each time the Supreme Court upheld the State Secrets Act, not just permitting, but requiring, lower courts to throw out lawsuits whenever the federal government claimed that letting such suits proceed would compromise national security. Not that he’d be the only citizen to recoil at the notion. But thanks to what he was listening to right now, he’d be one of a precious few to experience a deja vu moment. He would truly be able to say he’d been there, heard that.

But if anything, this was even worse. Egan wasn’t merely suggesting that the authorities could avoid litigating an issue by making the naked assertion that it was too sensitive to talk about, he was advancing the proposition that committing perjury in open court during a criminal trial was acceptable. That it all came down to a balancing test of sorts, in which the end could justify the means.

And the defendant?

Tough shit.

After all, the defendant was nothing but a two-bit dope dealer with a criminal record as long as his arm. How could he possibly stack up against an extremely high-value informer who’d been providing critical intelligence in major undercover operations for a number of years? And this nonsense about doing things in such a way as to not prejudice the defendant’s rights? While that must have sounded good to the jury, since when had it been left up to the police department to be the judge of that? Unfuckingbelieveable.

Yet for the moment, all Jaywalker could do was shake his head in bewilderment and listen as Daniel Pulaski turned to the judge and said, “This might be a good point for us to take up my application again.”

Once the jurors were out of the courtroom, Pulaski stated the obvious, that he was about to ask his witness to reveal the name of the informer. Judge Levine responded by saying that unless Jaywalker had something to add to his previous objection, she was prepared to close the courtroom.

“You bet I have something to add,” said Jaywalker. “Based upon Captain Egan’s admission that there’s not only been perjury committed by a previous prosecution witness, but that the perjury was the result of a deliberate, concerted effort to mislead the court, the defense and the jury, I move to dismiss all charges against my client.”

The judge turned to the prosecution table. “Tell me,” she said. “Did either of you know about this? Did you know, either in advance or at the time Investigator Bucknell testified, that he was telling anything other than the truth?”

“Absolutely not,” said Miki Shaughnessey.

“No,” said Daniel Pulaski.

Jaywalker was inclined to give Shaughnessey the benefit of the doubt. Pulaski was a different story. Still, there was no way he could show that either of them wasn’t telling the truth.

“If I may use a sports metaphor,” said Pulaski, “this is really a case of no harm, no foul. In no way has the defense been prejudiced by-”

“Sit down,” Levine told him. “I’m frankly not interested in your sports metaphors. Mr. Jaywalker is right in characterizing this as a deliberate, concerted effort to mislead the jury. And if I thought for a moment that you or any member of your office was involved in the deception, I would grant the motion. That said, I’m not sure Investigator Bucknell’s lie rises to the level of perjury. Perjury requires that the lie be about some material fact. Can you convince me, Mr. Jaywalker, that changing where the defendant went, from the eighth floor to the twelfth floor, was a material misstatement?”

Jaywalker spent the next five minutes on his feet, giving it his best shot. But the strongest argument he could come up with was that Bucknell’s lie may have led the jurors to disbelieve Alonzo Barnett’s testimony that it had been to the eighth floor, specifically to Apartment 805, that he’d gone. And if they disbelieved him on that point, they could well conclude that he’d lied about other things, as well. But as the judge was quick to point out, Egan’s testimony now supported Barnett’s version. And if that remained unclear to the jurors, Jaywalker was free to emphasize it on cross-examination and argue it on summation.

“So,” Levine continued, “while I think some sanction against the People is warranted, I don’t find that the situation requires dismissal. Any suggestions short of that, Mr. Jaywalker? Such as an instruction that the balance of Bucknell’s testimony be regarded with skepticism?”

“No,” said Jaywalker. For one thing, he couldn’t think of a lesser remedy. For another, he was afraid that anything less than outright dismissal might satisfy an appellate court without really accomplishing anything for the defense.

“I’m willing to tell the jury that Investigator Bucknell may face departmental charges as a result of what he did.”

“Absolutely not,” said Jaywalker. As he saw it, Bucknell was a patsy taking the fall for others. He’d done his job by originally reporting to Pascarella that he’d seen the elevator stop at eight. Then he was told to sanitize his testimony. Sanitize. Now he was being outed as a liar. The last thing Jaywalker wanted was for the jurors to feel sorry for him and return a conviction in an attempt to protect him from being disciplined.

So in the end the judge did nothing.

But Jaywalker had been around the block often enough to know that didn’t mean the incident had had no effect. The fact was, Shirley Levine was now pissed off at the prosecution, and rightfully so. Jaywalker knew that, and while there might be nothing he could do with it at the moment, sooner or later he was going to find an opportunity to turn it to his advantage-and Alonzo Barnett’s. That opportunity might come during cross- examination, summation, or even deliberations, should the jurors, for instance, have a question about what they should make of Egan’s testimony.

But for now, all Jaywalker could do was fret.

When they resumed, the spectator section was cleared. There was some complaining, but a run-of-the-mill drug case doesn’t exactly bring out the scalpers. Had there been reporters present, one of them might have put in a call to his or her legal department. But there were no reporters present. Nothing about Alonzo Barnett’s case had been newsworthy up to this point, and nothing was about to be. The people who were most upset at having to leave were the four of five Jaywalker groupies, retired guys who magically materialized whenever he was involved in a trial.

PULASKI: Captain Egan, would you tell us the name of the informer who at that time resided on the eighth floor of 345 West 127th Street?

EGAN: Only if I’m directed to do so.

Another cute stunt, this one no doubt choreographed by Daniel Pulaski.

THE COURT: Consider yourself directed.

EGAN: The informer’s name was Jackson Davis.

PULASKI: Thank you.

And with that, Pulaski sat down.

As Jaywalker rose to cross-examine, he half suspected a trap. Why hadn’t Pulaski had Egan pinpoint the apartment Davis lived in? Was it something other than 805, as Alonzo Barnett had testified? But Jaywalker knew he couldn’t afford to be cautious at this point. Sometimes you tested the waters, gingerly dipping in a toe. Other times you sucked in a deep breath and dived in. For better or for worse, this was going to be one of those other times.

JAYWALKER: Tell me, Captain Egan, does this master cross-index of yours include apartment numbers?

EGAN: Yes, it does.

JAYWALKER: So what apartment number did Jackson Davis reside in at 345 West 127th Street?